


The Story of Pupa Pan and his Shouty Fairy

by KarkatVantabulous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubbles, M/M, Red Romance, grimdark eridan, red tavkat, tavros nitram/karkat vantas matesprits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5246813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarkatVantabulous/pseuds/KarkatVantabulous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat walks through the bubbles and what does he see? Why a dead version of himself and Tavros snogging up a storm of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter 1

_'These fucking ghosts....'_ Karkat angrily thought to himself as he pushed past another horde of Eridan's and Sollux's bickering on god knows what. He finally broke away from the group of arguing ghosts, quickly walking away and shaking his head. _'I have to get away from these assholes before i lose my mind...'_ He thought, his eyes roaming the bubble for a decent place to escape to. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Karkat saw the bubble ripple. He turned his head just in time to see it change form. The bubble now displayed a relaxing looking forest. Karkat rolled his eyes and made his way to the memory of the forest, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.

A few minutes into the forest, Karkat could hear distant giggling. He shook his head and made an attempt to ignore it, letting his mind wander to more pressing matters like how Kanaya was going to scold him for running off without cleaning his respiteblock (she was such a lusus sometimes). The giggling somehow got louder and Karkat refocused on where he was going. Somehow, his legs got the impression that he wanted to get _closer_ to the obnoxious giggling.

"Tavros stop it..." Someone giggled out. Karkat furrowed his eyebrows and stopped, listening again. Another giggle, and Karkat instantly recognised the giggling to be his own. "Tavros.." What the fuck? Karkat continued his walking, now intentionally walking towards the giggling, slightly curious as to what was going on.

A moment of walking later, Karkat stumbled upon two giggling ghosts, but not just any ghosts. They were Karkat and Tavros, obviously, but they were wearing somewhat matching outfits. The ghost Karkat was wearing a white fairy dress, stopping just above his knee, with his symbol sewn on in bright red thread. Tavros was wearing his Pupa Pan outfit, but there was something different. This Tavros had obviously reached god tier, he had gigantic brown wings. The two ghosts were standing there, arms around each other. Tavros was peppering Karkat's face with light kisses, causing the other Karkat to giggle happily.

The living Karkat, on the other hand, couldn't believe what was going on. A ghost, _his_ ghost, was caboodling with Tavros' ghost. Not just that, but he was also wearing a fucking _fairy dress_. Karkat stood there awkwardly, staring at the two ghosts with his mouth slightly open. The two ghosts were too engrossed with each other to even notice Karkat, so Karkat brought attention to himself. He cleared his throat, closing his mouth. The ghosts froze, Tavros stopping mid-kiss and Karkat just stood there, seeming paralyzed.

"What in the name of ever loving fuck is going on here?" Karkat asked, looking the other two trolls over. The ghosts recomposed themselves, but didn't let each other go. They looked at each other, eyebrows raised and then, the dress-wearing ghost spoke up.

"What the fuck does it look like? You have eyes, you should be able to clearly see that I was having a fucking moment with my matesprit so if you could, please go be a dense asshole elsewhere." _Matesprit?_ Karkat probably should've figured that out, but it was still weird to actually hear it. The two ghosts instantly went back to their caboodling but it only lasted a second before the living Karkat spoke up once more.

"Matesprits? As in...Tavros and _I_...you and _Tavros_...matesprits? _How?_ " The dress-wearing Karkat groaned and hung his head, removing one hand from his hold on Tavros to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was about to angrily say something when Tavros put a finger underneath his chin, lifted his head, and pressed a light kiss to his lips. The turtle-neck wearing troll rolled his eyes, honestly thinking that little display of affection was kind of cute but he'd never admit it.

"It's uh...okay, Karkat...he...you...uhm...he deserves to know." Tavros spoke softly, pressing their foreheads together and grinning. His Karkat huffed but didn't say anything, obviously putty in Tavros' cute little hands. The two ghosts turned to Karkat, their hands sliding into each others. "Well...if you..if you really want to know i could tell you." Tavros mumbled, offering a small smile.

"Of course i want to fucking know, i mean i only fucking _asked._ " Karkat said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. The ghost Karkat growled out softly, receiving a light kiss on the forehead from the Pupa Pan impersonator.

"Right...well...let's sit." Tavros said, sitting down with his back pressing against a tree. His bronze wings fluttered slightly, fanning out so they wouldn't be crushed. Karkat sat beside his matesprit, his hand still clutching the other's. The living Karkat sat across from the two, crossing his legs and leaning back on a rock.

"Alright we're sitting. Start." Tavros nodded and let his Karkat's hand go, instead draping an arm lazily around his bare shoulders.

"Well...it all started like this..."


	2. Chapter 2

Tavros and Karkat were never particularly close. They weren't really considered friends, but somewhere along the line, they grew close. During their session, they talked more often than they did beforehand. They fought together, FLARPed together, watched movies together. They became one of the closest trolls around. No one knew how or why it happened, but it happened.

Then, when their session ended, and the twelve trolls were on the meteor, they were near inseparable. Karkat would invite Tavros to LOPAH, Land of Pulse and Haze, to show off his Knight of Blood powers, or Tavros would invite Karkat to LOSAZ, Land of Sand and Zephyr, to play fiduspawn with him, even though Karkat didn't enjoy it as much as Tavros did.

Of course everyone noticed this budding friendship, and they teased the hell out of the two about it. Kanaya would ask Karkat about his "matesprit", making Karkat blush and stutter out a string of curse words her way and she would merely giggle quietly at Karkat's sudden flustered state. Feferi would happily ask Tavros how his newfound red-relationship with Karkat was going and and Tavros would mumble out how they weren't matesprits whilst Feferi giggled and helped Tavros gelled back his curly hair. It was funny really, everyone knew that the two would eventually fall in some quadrant, either pale or red, but the two trolls of subject were far too oblivious.

Then, one extra special movie night, something changed. Whether it was just the heat of the moment or it was previous feelings that were bottled up and now spilling out, whatever the case was it changed everything between them. It changed for the better. The two were watching one of Tavros' Disney movies. One that actually interested Karkat. It was titled, _"The Little Sea Dweller"_. It was mainly about a violet blooded seadweller (duh) who fell in love with a yellow blooded land dweller. The land dweller was mistaken for dead and taken underwater to help feed the empress' lusus but the violet blood saw and freed the yellow blood before he could die. The land dweller instantly fell in love and then the sea dweller went to extreme lengths to hide his gills and find so he could spend time with his love. In the end, he found out (after an evil third party stepped In and was defeated) and the two lived happily ever after.

Even though this movie interested Karkat, he wasn't really paying attention. No, his attention was more toward the bronze blood sitting next to him. His attention was steered toward how the bronze blood's eyes were fixated on the screen. How his mouth would curve into a smile when his favourite scenes would show. How he let out a little gasp when the villain would pop up. How he would tighten the grip on the pillow he held on his lap when the "final battle" scene happened. Karkat couldn't tear his eyes away from the troll sitting next to him, and eventually Tavros noticed.

"Uh...Karkat?" Tavros asked, glancing over at Karkat who was staring at him. Karkat instantly snapped out of it, blinking and blushing furiously. Tavros just giggled, oblivious as to why Karkat was staring. "Is the movie not uh....as interesting as your romantic comedy films?" Tavros asked, his attention drifting between the trolls on the screen and the troll next to him.

"No, it's just that there's something more interesting than the movie at the moment." Karkat stated, praying to every horror terror out there that he wouldn't mess this up. The bronze blood whirled a brow, genuinely curious to what sparked the attention of the troll who's life practically depended on movies.

The mutant blood scooted a fraction of an inch closer to his flush crush and attempted to stutter out a plausible answer but ultimately failed. Karkat may have deemed himself to be the king of romance, but in reality, he was just as bad as the others when it came to this stuff. Tavros was confused, of course. It wash every day you saw a normally shouty and angry troll stuttering and blushing like mad. Tavros was now curious, and slightly scared. He was worried Karkat would pass out or was sick or some horrible thing. His horrible suspicions were put to rest though when Karkat quickly lunged forward and kissed the Taurus troll.

The kiss wasn't perfect, it wasn't rehearsed like in the movies. They bumped their noses and teeth together, Tavros' sharp teeth grazed Karkat's lip and there was an abundance of saliva. This was an awkward first kiss, but it was still perfect for them. It was perfect because it wasn't rehearsed, it was perfect because they were nervous and didn't know how to properly kiss, it was perfect because their mouths fit together perfectly. Karkat was the first to pull away, slowly to make the kiss last as long as possible. Karkat was red in the face, Tavros had a light brown blush dusting his cheeks, but they both wore goofy grins.

"You're uh... A little red there...Karkat." Tavros commented, his grin widening a bit. He thought it was cute how the master of romance was so flustered over a simple little troll with self-esteem issues. Karkat just shrugged, already having the perfect, and most romantic, comeback to that.

"Yeah well...now I can show how red for you I really am." Karkat stated nonchalantly. Tavros' chocolate brown eyes widened slightly and his brown blush spread. Karkat smirked, knowing his well constructed comeback had worked, he was prepared for a string of stuttering words or "awww"s but he wasn't prepared for Tavros to lean in, smashing their lips together in another kiss. Karkat wasn't complaining though, he gladly wrapped his arms around the brown blood and kissed him back.

From then on, the two low blooded trolls were never separated. They seemed to have their hands glued together because their hands never let each other go. They spent their time watching films, FLARPing, reading or just enjoying time with one another. They were official, and everybody knew so. A soft groan of "finally!" Rang from them when the announcement was made. Karkat was just about ready to give them a piece of his thinkpan when Tavros peppered his cheek with kisses, successfully distracting the hot-tempered red blood. From that one action, it was quite obvious that Karkat would constantly be putty in Tavros' soft hands.

It was like nothing else mattered to them, they were in their own little world. No other troll had seen Karkat happier, his frown was still present though not as much as before. Tavros' shyness seemed to melt away when he was near Karkat, it was like the hot-tempered troll gave him a certain amount of self confidence. The two seemed to balance each other out, they were just so ... _perfect_ with each other, and no one could even understand _how_ they managed this. How a mutant blooded troll with a tendency to scream at everything and a bronze-blood with a habit to shy away from his problems could come together to create such a perfect matespritship. Infact, they were so perfect together that Karkat agreed to wear a dress for his matesprit. Not just any dress though, a white fairy dress.

Yes, Karkat agreed to be the fairy in this week's FLARPing session, and Tavros was Pupa Pan. The Taurus troll had planned ahead, already having asked Kanaya to make the dress and sew Karkat's cancer symbol in bright red string on the chest. Karkat rolled his eyes and dropped his clothes, leaving his crab print boxers, and slid the white dress on. It was comfortable, he had to admit, though it was a bit short. Karkat huffed and crossed his arms as his matesprit ogled him. It truly was a sight to see. Tavros' brown blush re-appeared and he strode over to the cancer troll and nuzzled him, complimenting him so he didn't feel as embarrassed. Karkat liked this attention but he kept his cold front up, though it eventually fell and he smiled.

"Yeah, whatever loverboy. I'll go get some shit off of LOPAH and i'll meet you back in your respite block in half an hour, deal?" Karkat asked, smoothing out the dress.

"It's a deal, bullcrab." Tavros murmured, pressing another kiss to Karkat's warm cheek. The cancer troll rolled his eyes at the nickname he always belittled though he loved it and Tavros knew. The two shared another kiss before Karkat pried himself away and walked off to the computer lab to the transportalizer. He hoped no one would see him, and gladly no one did. He hopped on the transportalizer and disappeared to the planet of pulse and haze, his mouth still stretched up in a smile over the most recent kiss shared between himself and his bronze-blooded love.


	3. Chapter 3

Karkat flew around LOPAH, looking for the correct FLARPing material's for today's session. Karkat, being a mutant, didn't get giant beautiful wings like Tavros and Aradia. He had no wings at all, but he could still fly. Whatever, at least now he didn't have to cut holes in the backs of all his sweaters to make room for his wings.

He zoomed above the giant ocean of blood that covered a majority of his planet. He was starting to feel just a tad bit self-conscious. He was wearing a dress and flying around. What if someone saw? Who would see though? Jack Noir? No, Jack had dug himself a private corner in this blood-covered planet to keep secluded and safe. But still, Karkat felt the need to slid on his regular pants just to ease his mind. Wait, there they are! He finally spotted the FLARPing materials Tavros left behind the last time they played.

The Knight of Blood floated down to the little island in the middle of the giant candy red blood ocean and gathered the items. He safely stored them in his sylladex and was just about ready to fly back when his palmhusk dinged. He uncaptchalogued his palmhusked and turned it on. It was probably Tavros sending him cute little winky faces or some other emote. God he was such a dork and Karkat loved that.

Unsurprisingly, It was a message from Tavros. Karkat hummed happily and clicked on his screen name to see what lovey-dovey thing his matesprit sent him now. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the newest message, not quite sure what was going on but he knew something had happened.

adiosToreader[AT]  **began trolling** carcinoGeneticist[CG] 

AT: kARKAT YOU NEED TO COMOBJ:WAUWBFC 

CG: WHAT??? THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?

CG: I NEED TO WHAT???

CG: TAVROS???

CG: TAVROS, WHAT'S WRONG???

carcinoGeneticist[CG] **ceased trolling** adiosToreador[AT]

This wasn't good, Karkat didn't know what was going on and Tavros wasn't responding to his panicked messages. Karkat was worried, worried to a point where the blood surrounding him ceased its still state and starting creating small waves. His new Knight of Blood powers were a hell of a lot harder to control than expected. He took in a couple deep breaths and willed himself to calm down, he couldn't lose control of his powers. No, that would be bad. Very bad.

The blood reverted back to its dormant state and Karkat slowly floated upward. It was probably just a mix up. Tavros' palmhusk probably fell on his face or the charge ran out or something right? Right. Karkat safely and calmly floated all the way back to the transportalizer that would send him back to the meteor. He stepped on and instantly disappeared from LOPAH for what he didn't know would be forever.

The second Karkat appeared on the other transportalizer, he accidentally pushed off a grimdark Eridan who was about to escape the crime scene. Karkat reached a hand out to help his high blooded sea dweller friend when his eyes drifted upward. The _bodies_ the _blood_ Karkat saw, it was all too much.

The floor was covered in multicolored blood. Fuschia, yellow, Jade, _brown_. Brown? No. No no no. Karkat's eyes scanned the floor, looking for the producer of the brown blood. He saw Feferi, a hole in her chest and sprawled on the floor. He saw Kanaya, a hole in her chest and laid down on the ground as if she were Troll Sleeping Beauty. Then he saw it. He saw the trail of yellow that mixed with brown. Sollux was laying there, his eyes were still giving off a faint red and blue steam, and Tavros was slumps on top of him. The Taurus troll had a hole in chest as well, bronze blood streaming out of it. Karkat assumed that his matesprit attempted to breathe life back into his Gemini friend, but the killer was too quick.

Karkat held back a strangled sob at the sight of this. His _matesprit was dead._ Anger quickly bubbles up inside the small troll. His eyes instantly locked on the grim dark Eridan still on the ground. The Aquarius troll sneered at the glare he was given and stood up, brushing himself off. The grim dark troll said something but it sounded like gibberish to Karkat, for some reason this angered him even more.

Karkat could feel himself begin to lose control over his blood powers, but who cared? Not the current angered cancer troll. Eridan gingerly plucked up a pale wand he hand dropped earlier and looked at Karkat with a shit eating grin as if saying _"This wand will be your death."_ Karkat snarled, his mouth curling over his teeth to show off his unnaturally even teeth. The tips of Karkat's fingers felt warm and he knew he officially lost control of all powers.

Eridan must've noticed the little pools of blood swirling upwards to form a sort of baby tornado because he smirked yet again and fake-yawned. Karkat let out an angry/frustrated growl, his hands curling into fists. He needed some control over his powers if he didn't have some he wouldn't be able to take this son of a bitch down. He took in a shaky breath, _trying_ to calm down.

The Cancer troll took a step forward, the little tornados of blood turned still. Bad move. Eridan instantly raised his wand and shot out a beam of "hope". Karkat barely had time to dive to the side, narrowly avoiding the beam. He hissed when he hit the ground, pain shooting up his body. Karkat had to do something, he had to do something _now._

The Knight of Blood uncaptchalogued his sickles and hopped to his feet. His thinkpan was a swirling mess of reason and pure rage. He couldn't think properly. He let his rage consume him and charged at the sea dweller. Karkat jumped up, sickles at the ready, and was about to slash at his supposed friend. Eridan, however, was fully prepared for another attack. The Prince of Hope shot another beam towards The Knight of Blood, and created a hole in his stomach.

Karkat dropped to the ground, eyes wide, and blood gushing out of the wound in his stomach. He coughed up some candy red blood and weakly turned his head to face the corpse of his matesprit. His arm twitched in the direction of the Page of Breath and Karkat could feel his life source begin to quickly fade away.

_"T-Tavros..."_ Karkat mumbled, his voice strained. His vision was blurring, and Karkat didn't even fight it anymore. The cancer troll relaxed his body and closed his eyes just as he breathed his final breath.

The Knight of Blood was dead.


	4. Chapter 4

Karkat opened his eyes and everything was dark. Then, the scenery rippled and a light showed in the distance. How cliche.

He walked towards the light and wrapped his arms around himself. He was cold. He looked down to see the white dress he was wearing, it now had a giant red stain on it. His blood. He patted the stain but felt his solid body underneath. What happened? He racked his brain, trying to remember. All he could remember was seeing Tavros dead...a lot of anger and a flash of bright light. That was all he could remember. Wait...

_Tavros._

Karkat floated up a few inches off the ground and flew to the light. He had to find Tavros. But how? There was a metric fuck ton of other copies of himself and Tavros. How many other timelines involved him and Tavros hooking up? How many other timeline Karkat's were wearing a dress? How many other had godtiered? He didn't know but he _had_ to find Tavros.

He flew faster.

Finally, Karkat flew through the bright light and out into the bustling bubble. The light blinded him momentarily but soon his eyes were scanning the crowd underneath him, looking for Tavros. Groups of Sollux and Kanaya and Karkat and just about everyone else was down there, even a fairly large group of Tavros' but not _his_ Tavros.

Karkat flew down to the ground and walked around, looking. The other ghosts gave him odd stares but the cancer troll merely glared at them and gave them a few options to where they should put a certain sickle and stomped off. He walked out of that bubble and into another before floating up and scanning the crowds again. He repeated this process a good five times and all five times, he got nothing. Karkat began losing hope.

The deceased Knight of Blood roamed the bubbles he had already passed through in hopes of spotting the flush of his life but nothing yet. Eventually he just gave up. He floated away from the bubbles and a new one formed around him. The bubble rippled and the scenery changed. Karkat was now slowly floating in the room he and Tavros would spend a majority of their time in. The room was messy. Books, games, movies, and stuffed animals littered the floor. The husktop that was always displayed for their movie viewing purposes showed a staticy screen. The couch that was in front of it was still messy with blankets and pillows.

Seeing all of this brought a sad smile to Karkat's face. He reminisced of all the times he and Tavros shared here. Of all the late night cuddles and heated discussions on whether or not two characters in any of their movies were right for each other. He missed running his hand through Tavros' gelled back curly hair or seeing him take out his ear and nose rings whenever he went to bed, the concentration on his face whilst taking them out was pretty interesting. He missed how Tavros would hum and pet his hair whenever Karkat would start to drift off in Tavros' lap. He missed Tavors' good morning kisses and his hugs and how he was so passionate over his games or movies. _He missed Tavros._

Karkat sighed and slowly walked over to the couch. He plopped down and pulled one of the blankets over himself, he didn't need the warmth anymore but it was just nice. The faint scent of Tavros was on it, the smell of freshly baked cookies and a new book.

He snuggled into the blanket and forced himself not let the bright red tears that threatened to fall stream down his cheeks. He would see Tavros again...hopefully. He would be back in the arms of his loving matesprit. He would soon be back with him and would spend the rest of his afterlife happily with Tavros. Quiet flapping was heard behind the couch but Karkat ignored it. Hopefully whoever it was could tell that he wasn't really in the mood for any kind of squabbling or talking of any kind.

"Karkat...?" That voice. Karkat instantly flew up, the blanket dropping onto the floor. Standing there was Tavros. His Tavros. Tavros in his little pupa pan costume and his new, pure white eyes. He had a goofy grin plastered on his face, his ears perking up slightly. Karkat reacted instantly. The cancer troll flew over to his ghostly matesprit and kissed him happily. Tavros was surprised for a half of second but he soon regained himself and kissed Karkat back, even going the extra mile and dipping him down a little.

The kiss soon ended and they were just happy in each other's arms. Karkat succumbed and red tears streamed down his face. Tavros mumbled sweet nothings to his sobbing matesprit and wiped the tears away with his thumb. He pressed little kisses all over his cheeks, nose, and forehead and Karkat just kept muttering apologies for not being there sooner. Tavros was just happy to see Karkat again, his wings fluttered happily and he continued peppering his face with kisses.

"Tavros..." Karkat mumbled, sniffling. Tavros hummed and glanced down at his matesprit. The cancer troll sniffled once more before pressing a kiss to Tavros' cheek. "Flushed for you."

"Flushed for you too, bullcrab." The Page of Breath said happily, pressing a kiss to Karkat's forehead. "Now come on, let's go snuggle on our memory-made couch." Tavros lifted Karkat up and floated over to the couch, setting him down and sitting next him. The Taurus troll wrapped the blanket around the two of them and sighed. They were together again. They may have of died, but at least they were together.

They were together and they were happy.


	5. Chapter 5

"...And that's what happened." The deceased Karkat finished off. The living Karkat was sitting there in awe. he had to admit, this was one of the best love stories he's heard. Tavros nodded and slid his hand in his matesprits. The living Karkat looked down at their hands and nearly smiled.

It was amazing really. Karkat never expected himself to fall flushed for any troll. Especially not Tavros. But after hearing their story, Karkat understood. The two were compatible, they sort of balanced each other out in a way. Karkat was somewhat "outgoing" whilst Tavros was the more shy type. The two rubbed off on each other, letting their personalities mix. From what Karkat could tell, Tavros seemed a bit more confident that usual and Karkat quieter.

Karkat began to mentally point out other things. The cancer troll had never really been able to play many games growing up due to the constant worry over his early death because of his mutation yet Tavros enjoys such childhood games and plays them with Karkat. Tavros is shy and has a hard time speaking his mind whilst Karkat has that strong false self-confidence and is fairly blunt with others. They both enjoyed movies, and though not all their movies are the same, they can find a nice little compromise. But the most important thing was that they enjoyed each other's company.

"Holy shit..." That's all the living cancer troll could breathe out. He was...astonished. He didn't know how else to respond. He was actually starting to wonder if he would've gotten the same sense of completeness these two ghosts had if his Tavros had survived.

"Mhmm, shit's pretty fucking awesome. It's like my life was momentarily a romcom. The best part is...I'd live it all again if it meant being with Tavros." That comment made the Taurus troll smile. Karkat had to admit, it was pretty fucking sappy. But Tavros liked the sappy side of his grumpy matesprit.

The two ghosts smiled at each other and leaned in to exchange a sweet kiss, even their mouths seemed to fit perfectly with one anothers.

Who could'be guessed that Pupa Pan and a Shouty Fairy would have such an interesting love story.


End file.
